Voight had even found a loose connection between Katie and Joe Pierson...talk about two hundred degrees of separation. Turned out she knew a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend had been at that house party that had spelled doom for Bernie. She was pre-med and desperate to have herself expunged from ever having been in there. So she called a friend of a friend who was happy to set up the buy.

The connection couldn't get any looser. But apparently an upstanding fireman in pain trying to self medicate did not read "set up" and Pierson was more than happy to oblige. Other than college kids, these were his best customers...older, good jobs, and they kept comin' back. They also never brought the heat. They were soccer moms no one would suspect, lawyers with back pain, and now...firemen with nagging injuries.

Halstead felt like a traitor to Erin when he backed up his boss' scheme to use Severide.

"I thought you were on my side! We're partners, remember? Wasn't that what you said?" Erin was making one last ditch effort to call off the buy, and it was landing on deaf ears. "You have to see this is crazy. You have to."

"I am your partner! I always have your back, but at this point we've got no other options!" Jay argued.

"Fine." Erin said, backing away. "If anything goes wrong, it's on you two. You hear me? You good with that?"

Ruzek and Olinsky had wisely chosen to keep their heads down and their mouths shut. They didn't want any part of this fight.

Voight, looked bored with the whole thing.

"Nothin' bad's gonna happen. It'll be over before you know it." Jay tried to pacify her. But the words he was saying sounded like crap even to his own ears.

"So that's it?" Erin asked incredulously.

Was she the only one who cared that Severide was going into this virtually blind? At least they were all trained detectives...with hundreds...hell, thousands of combined hours in undercover work.

"That's it." Jay said. "It's all we got."

Erin shoved past Voight giving him a look that if looks could kill would've rendered him dead in a heartbeat.

"Well, I'm not okay with this," she said, spitting the words out like poison as she left the room.

"Yeah, tell me again." Voight hollered after her . "'Cause I don't think I heard you the first hundred times."

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The buy was goin' down in some half-star motel parking lot. Kelly was supposed to park on the east side, covered by darkness, nearest the burned out street light. Pierson would pull up in front of the fireman and wait in his car. Kelly was supposed to go to the passenger side window, and that's where the exchange would take place.

Erin went over the simple instructions for the hundredth time.

"I got it. I got it. Don't engage...no conversation." Kelly said. He was getting frustrated with her. She was a bigger worry-wart than Shay, and it was makin' him nervous as hell. "Just get the pills...in and out."

"If he wants you to get in the car, don't do it. If he wants you to do anything other than what we just talked about, get your ass back in the car. If it just doesn't feel right, turn around."

The worry in the detective's voice was not lost on Voight... or on Halstead who were waiting in a black SUV across the street and down the block...with a clear line of sight to the sedan Kelly and Erin were in.

And the mics were hot.

The buy went down as planned. No hitches, over in less than five minutes. Only words exchanged were two "heys" and one "thanks."

Kelly was back in Erin's cruiser in fifteen handing over the little white tablets. He'd asked for Oxycodone and Pierson had delivered.

Back at District 21 everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. The deal was done. They had pulled it off.

"So are you gonna arrest him now? Get some names from him or somethin'?" Kelly asked wondering why they were all sitting on their hands while the guy who just gave him drugs had just driven off untouched.

"Guys like Pierson aren't worth it." Olinsky answered simply. "He's just a little piss-ant. He doesn't know anything about anything."

"So why in the hell did we bother with all this?" Severide wanted to know.

He'd been sweatin' a pound of flesh over a little piss-ant so low on the food chain he didn't know his own mother's name?

"You're gonna get the names." Antonio Dawson told him "Not tonight, not next time...but eventually you're gonna get names."

Kelly realized this part time job was gonna be a long term commitment.

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

So Voight unfolded the details of his plan...the ones he left out when he sealed the deal with a handshake.

Now Kelly was beginning to feel a little of Erin's apprehension.

More time...more buys...getting pissed. Demanding to meet with the higher ups...

More chances to fuck up.

But what could he do? It was too late to back out now.